NAMES: It was Shakespeare who asked “What’s in a name?”

Of course, he wasn’t referring to the names of hurricanes. Farmers Almanac, on the other hand, has a list of hurricane names for use in 2024 at https://www.farmersalmanac.com/hurricane-names

There are six lists that are rotated, with storms that do heavy damage — like Hurricane Katrina or Sandy — retired. Another name that starts with the same letter replaces it.

We’re betting it wouldn’t have been fun to be named Katrina or Sandy in the aftermath of those horrendous storms.

Storms started being named in the 1950s, with women’s names, and in 1979, male names were added, too.

This year’s Atlantic storms are as follows: Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Francine, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Milton, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sara, Tony, Valerie and William.

Next year’s names are Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dexter, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Imelda, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy.

“The World Meteorological Organization is responsible for developing the names for both Northern Pacific and Atlantic storms,” Farmers Almanac said. “That means every six years, the names cycle back around and get reused.

“Tropical storms and hurricanes that did a lot of damage received unofficial names—like the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane, which did so much damage that the Miami government implemented the first known building code in the United States.

“The names now alternate between male and female names, listed alphabetically and in chronological order starting with A and omitting Q and U, X, Y, and Z.”

If they run out of names in a season, there’s an auxiliary list of names to be used. Those weren’t shared.